In The Endless Zanhyang We Are - Tour Diary week 2

I woke up early in the morning and ate bread again for breakfast. Often I crave kimchi, but I’m slowly getting used to English breakfast.

Today we all had tasks to do, so we went to the lounge in Ty Pawb in the afternoon. There, we sent emails, wrote our Facebook address on band stickers and put them on each table in the lounge. After that, we joined Eyre Llew and walked around and watched the performances of other bands.

It had rained the previous night, so it was a bit chilly, but the air was fresh, and that made me feel pleasant. When we went back to the lounge in Ty Pawb, I was satisfied to see that most of the stickers we had put on the tables were gone.

For our final destination we went to a parish church in Wrexham, and it was an old church whose walls were 700 years old and ceiling was 500 years old. It seemed like there had been a gig in the place, since crew members were packing up their instruments. The inside of the church was magnificent and old-fashioned, and that very atmosphere made me feel reassured.

When we were done with our schedule, we went to Tesco again to buy food for our dinner. Our entrée today was pasta, and it was a success!

Hope we have good weather tomorrow as well.

May 13th

Today we had a gig at the venue called Blue Moon in Cambridge.

The weather was clear and chilly. We set up our instruments with Eyre Llew in front of the venue, and, fortunately, the gig was held on the ground floor, which made the setting less difficult. After setting up, we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby. I ordered a wonton soup, and it tasted a bit like my mother’s seaweed soup. I almost burst into tears.

It seems like eating a fine meal resulted in a satisfactory performance today. I think the audience’s reaction today was decent. Eyre Llew is such an awesome band. There’s absolutely no doubt about it.

We stayed at Patrick’s friend Chris’ house, and there was a cute black cat called Miya. I heard Miya once went up on the roof and had an accident which resulted in her tail being cut off. I am allergic to cats, so my nose became clogged and my eyes became itchy. Miya was such a lovely cat, and I felt sad that I couldn’t pet her.

The sky in the UK is so clear that we can see so many stars at night. It is very cool to see.

May 14th

The weather got a bit warmer.

We did laundry at Chris’ house, and drove 30 minutes to McDonald’s to get our lunch.

If we had been in Korea, we would have ordered delivery or walked to McDonalds, but in the UK it seems obvious that people always take their cars when going somewhere. However, from our perspective, the life of those British people seems relaxed and leisurely.

We went to the park in Cambridge along with Chris. He told us that his back is not so good, so he has to lie down at home most of the time. Chris seemed happy, probably since it was his visit outside in a long time.

In Cambridge, we can ride a punt on the river, using a long pole to push against the riverbed. We could either ask for a guide’s help or do it by ourselves, but we decided to try punting by ourselves. Punting was quite an arduous task. I missed the pole once, and had lot of twists and turns, but I got better. After an hour of punting, we went to Tesco again to buy supper.

It’s pizza night!

May 15thby GeonSeok

Today we are performing at the venue called A Thousand Islands in London, the first city that pops into my mind when thinking of the UK. Like the last time, we moved the amp and musical instruments to the venue and ran a quick soundcheck and rehearsal. After the rehearsal, we grabbed a simple meal and went back to the venue to prepare for our set (changing into stage costumes and setting instruments).

Thankfully, due to the large number of performances in the UK, we have started to get somewhat more natural and fun when we perform here. I feel it everytime we finish our set, that the reactions of the audiences here being different from in Korea makes us more elated and excited.

After we were done with our performance, Patrick’s sister and her boyfriend came to see us and told us thankfully and bashfully that they loved our performance.

Besides, all the compliments we received for our performance came as a huge relief and we felt a lot of gratitude. So we finished the show with Eyre Llew, and came to Patrick’s friend’s house to stay for the night.

As I’ve always felt, it’s amazing that we’re performing in the UK!

May 16th

After a successful show in London, we headed to Brighton early in the morning, stopping for a simple breakfast at the rest area on the way.

So we arrived in Brighton!

As soon as we arrived we saw a lush sea. We parked and walked toward the sea, but the weather was colder than expected, so we went back. Since we have a gig tomorrow, we did some maintenance and had a rest. After meeting Eyre Llew, we headed straight to the pier. When we went in, I had a feeling that the place quite resembled a casino. There were slot machines on one side, and the members indulged in them. Sung Hoon spent five pounds on one machine. That could have made for a single meal!

So we had a fun time at the pier, then went to Patrick’s friend’s house. I unpacked, and along with Eyre Llew and Patrick’s friend, we went to grab fish and chips. After eating, we went bowling. At the end of the day, we came back home and grabbed a beer.

We drink beer every day… I mean, every day…

May 17th

After staying the night in Brighton, we are performing at a festival called ‘The Great Escape.’ Our show happened at 3:20pm, so we woke up early in the morning, got prepared, and headed to the festival. Patrick said that we would have a meeting, which gave us spare time of three to four hours. We went to Subway to have breakfast, then went to the bay to take an hour nap. Such a sweet nap!

So we spent our time there, went back to the festival, and started preparing for our performance, which happened after Eyre Llew’s set. There wasn’t enough space there, so we did our set up outside, and went back inside. Now we have gotten used to this!

We successfully finished our performance. One guy today approached us and said, “Your music is so unique.” Every time I hear such things, it feels so good.

After that, we went with Patrick to where all delegates and artists gather, spent some time there, and went to Tesco, as usual. We cooked pasta at Patrick’s friend’s place, and that was our day.

But beer really wrapped up our day. As usual!

May 18th by Dayoung

Today our performance happened in Oxford. For once, instead of Patrick, Sam of Eyre Llew drove. Sam has an amazing talent for driving to a destination three hours away in only two hours and ten minutes. (It’s good sometimes, but often makes me sick!)

In the car, we let people listen to K-pop, but I couldn’t read their countenance. We talked about each other’s musical tastes, and played songs for each other.

In the UK, usually musicians bring their own speakers and amps and get involved in every process from setting up to wrapping up. So, every day when we have performance, we bring all the instruments, set them up, and when the performance is over, we pack them up and play Tetris in the trunk. Now we have outstanding Tetris skills!

I loved today’s performance. I drank more beer than water (since we came to the UK, it happens pretty much every day) and sold the largest amount of band merchandise since we came to the UK. There were people who came to see us again after seeing our show back at Bristol, and there were people who promised that they would come back and see our next shows. Whenever I face people with unexpected stories (for example, after the show today, one member of the audience said, “You guys look like the Cocteau Twins!”), I feel myself anew.

Anyway, I love this sort of a day, when I come back to our accommodation after finishing the show and drink beer with my fellow members and friends.

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